RISK REWARD LUCK UNLUCKY

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, "The only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks."

There is a stigma against risk taking; it is an inherent defense mechanism in the brain which governors people trying to hurt themselves. No one wants the pain of being hurt, whether physical or emotional. Rejection is a burning knife in the gut. Going outside one's "comfort zone" is a high anxiety experience. 

You can stop the risk by becoming a hermit living in one's personal shell of personal barriers, excuses, bad lonely habits and paralysis.

LOST was a case study of different types of risk takers.

You have the messiah-complex high level risk takers who really did not weigh any moral issues when they made their decisions. Ironically, Jack and Ben were on a similar plane. Jack took surgical risks on patients because he believed he was a miracle worker. It was an unrealistic belief that he could save everyone. But even with those giant risks, he got very little reward from his hospital, his staff or his father. Ben took a different path to putting in play his "big play," the banishment of Widmore from the island and the purge of killing the Dharma collective, including his own father, so he would become the island king. He risked everything for the power to control the island. He got nothing in return because the Others did not respect him (they feared him), he had no friends and his own self-grandeur amounted to nothing in the end.

Hurley was at the opposite end of the spectrum. He did not want to take any risks. So he hid himself in a shy exterior. He would only come to life once he got to know you well. He only had one or two friends, but those relationships ended when he failed to share his secret that he won the lottery. He believed himself cursed by fate, so he did very little to try to expand his reach. He would have been a fast food lackey his entire life; no ambition, no girlfriend, no family, no life. Once he landed on the island, he could have made more of his "new start." He became the likeable guy, but not a major player or decision maker.

Of the "lucky" survivors, many of the main characters' lives did not end well in the series. If they risked the perils of the island to reach their personal dream or goal, they failed. Sayid longed for his one true love, Nadia.  But he risked his own life to get her back, but in the end he wound up with Shannon, the exact opposite. Locke longed for acceptance and adventure, the hero jock. But he wound up conned and crippled by his own family and his own shortcomings. Their personal sacrifices did not result in reaching their dreams.

There is a relationship between risk and reward. One cannot exist without the other. It is like a reflection in a mirror: you have to see who you are in order to change yourself. "Bad luck" is more often the lack of effort to reach an opportunity. But if one takes failure as "proof" that one's fate is a sad, lonely, unfilled life - - - they are missing the great life lesson that experience comes through failure. Experience is necessary in order to take calculated risks for reasonable rewards. It is those people who understand this dynamic push forward (against the odds) to succeed; they make their own luck.

BEN'S RAGE

We know this is not true: LOST was not about Ben.

Or was it? We know in reality that Ben was going to be a throw-away character; a leader of the villain clan who would have been killed by the survivors as they marched toward Lord of the Flies madness. But Michael Emerson's strong acting performance soon made Ben a fan favorite, and a new story engine for the series.

People have theorized that the LOST mythology centers around Jack, or Hurley but in the beginning we know from the preproduction notes that Kate was supposed to be the focal point for the series. But again, that changed when Jack in the pilot became the instance face of the series. Instead of killing off Jack to "bump up the island drama," Jack became the leader of the survivors instead of Kate.

So the show has a history of changing course in mid-stream.

You can apply just about any centrist theory onto Ben.

It can lead to a compelling case that the workings of the show were in Ben's head.

For example, Ben has spinal cancer. He dreams/prays/desires a miracle surgeon. And right away, a great surgeon literally falls out of the sky to save his life. How does that happen?

Considering that Ben had the means, opportunity and wealth to leave the island and do whatever the hell he pleased, why he was stuck on the island waiting for fate to take his life was odd. There are a few explanations for this behavior. One, he was scared of living the island because he may not be able to return. Two, he was the embodiment of the island's power, like Jacob, so he would be naturally healed because he was the island's native leader. Three, he really did not have cancer - - - it was a myth or phobia or a nightmare.

By putting the context of the show into the mental state of Ben could explain many contradictory aspects of the story lines.

We know Ben was an insecure child. He was raised by a drunken father. He was blamed for his mother's death. He was quiet and introverted, he made no real friends. Everything we saw and heard could have been the transcript of a lonely child's imagination.

A telling point is when Hurley invites Ben into the church reunion to "move on" to the next plane of existence. However, Ben passes on the opportunity. He has personal things to work on. Again, why would Ben even show up in the main characters' purgatory reunion world?

The sideways world appears to be one made for "second chances." In it, Ben is a lowly school teacher. He is taking care of his ill father. He does not have any friends, only colleagues at work. He is meek and naive. But there is a part of him that is a dreamer. He thinks he can help other people, that he can be a strong leader, and that he can find happiness (maybe as a step dad to Alex). But in this alternative universe, nice guys still seem to finish last.

But if you view the island world as a prequel to the sideways fantasy world, it could make some sense. Ben dreamed of being a powerful and wealthy man. He dreamed of the island fantasy because in his "real" life (which the sideways world is based upon) is so dull. When Ben dreams of being special, his mind races to create nightmares based upon his anxieties such as falling in love with women he could never have (Juliet and Kate were island examples.)

Each of the main characters could represent the problems in Ben's life. Hurley could represent the unlucky lottery winner. Locke could represent the trapped personality in both career and personal life. Kate could represent either women who don't find him attractive or his need to escape his routine. Jack could represent his fear of success. Desmond could represent his fear of failure. As he tries to figure out how to change himself, his dreams attempt to try to change these fictional characters into better, stronger people.

As we have discussed, researchers do believe that the purpose of dreams is to allow a person's mind to make calculations and "what if" variable runs to find solutions to waking problems. The variables in Ben's life could be represented by the main characters and how they are trying to cope with the various hard-wired problems in Ben's persona: including rage, desire, needs, fears. It seems that Ben's biggest problem is that he feels that he is not acknowledged or recognized as being a good person. He is merely a background player in the sideways school. Only one of his students finds him approachable and helpful. His colleagues dismiss his talk as being merely fiction or a wild dream. He is a dog without a bark or a bite.

So, the show is a series of dreamscapes showing Ben how he could be more like Jack, Locke, Kate or Hurley. How can he find love. How can he be more open and confident. How can he get people to listen to him. How can he get people to follow his lead. How he can lead a better life.

But it is Ben's pent-up rage that feeds a long pattern of nightmares. His mind is sidetracked by personal failure that he envisions himself as a diabolical tyrant who acts like a god-like figure over stronger willed people. Perhaps by the time he has the sideways church conversation with Hurley, Ben has learned that he has to let go of his inner rage - - - and to also let go of all the imaginary characters that he created to help him cope with his miserable real life.

Ben has to "wake up" from living in a fantasy world in order to "move on" in his real life. The sideways world was closer to reality than we thought; it was really the last act in Ben's elaborate self-examination. He decided that he no longer needed the main characters to help him figure things out in the real world. He decided to let them go (and symbolically be erased by the white light at the end of episode).

From that point forward, Ben had the mind-set of cleaning up his act. To begin to work on how mend his fences with his father (as Locke had done in the sideways world),  and to work on finding true companionship with Rousseau and Alex.

FOR THE LOVE OF CRIME

It's a different kind of fatal attraction.

Hybristophilia is a term used by criminologists -- but not scientists -- to describe a sexual attraction to violent killers in prison, who often receive racy love letters or sexy undergarments from their fans.

Also known as the "Bonnie and Clyde syndrome," it has existed throughout time and across borders.

Norway's most famous mass murderer gets hundreds of fan letters from lovelorn women, including marriage proposals. Charles Manson had his cult following, even in prison.

Why some women are attracted to "the bad boy" persona baffles normal men.

Perhaps, due to societal pressures and expectations, women have to repress their desires for freedom and adventure. They seek to find fulfillment with "exciting" men who appear to be the rebellious answer to their conservative peer pressures. It also may a motherly adaptation of the theme of trying to change a bad man into a good one.

So who were the "bad boys" of LOST?

Sawyer, the charming con man, clearly used his image and talents to find women falling over him. Even after the con, some women still adored him. The women who fell for him were usually those lonely housewives that lacked a spark of excitement in their marriages, or had self-worth issues that could be solved with a "big financial score." However, Kate was clearly drawn to Sawyer because they shared a same reckless, self-first survival mode.

Ben was a sociopath, a mass murderer. In the show, he had no girlfriend. He tried to impose his will on the women in the compound, but his tyranny did not evoke any connection with women in the camp. However, in fan groups, there were several women who adored Ben's character, which may be closer to the Bonnie and Clyde syndrone mentioned above. Women could be attracted to such a bad character because Ben was not a real person in their lives, much as a prisoner in a life sentence without parole could never be part of the real lives. It is that real barrier that allows the fantasy connection to be expressed by these women.

Jacob may have also been a sociopath. He brought people to the island as candidates, only to have almost all of the candidates perish. He played games with human lives. But he was also a loner. We never saw any connection to anyone, except his Crazy Mother (also a sociopath) and his estranged brother. In an odd way, perhaps Jacob's game of bringing people to the island was a means of combating his loneliness, or a weak attempt to attract someone he could truly love. The mystery of Jacob did spawn a group of followers, including women in the Others camp. But it seems that Jacob never acted upon his cult followers in any way to allow them to meet or interact with him in a human way. Even in Greek stories, the gods would at times come to Earth to mingle, tease, and procreate with interior humans, usually to invoke the wrath of higher gods.

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

The Bear Cage passion play was the most illicit carnal scene in LOST.

After Kate was kidnapped by the Others, she was told to wash up, put on a summer dress, and meet Ben on the beach for wine and a light meal. It was at this meeting that Ben looked to charm, seduce and use Kate.

We think that Ben's first purpose was to find a new ally in Kate. He knew her background. In some ways, they were compatible: they both had father issues, broken homes, issues with authority, the need to control, highly manipulative and willing to play dirty. Many believe that this beach meeting was an awkward attempt by nerdy Ben to make a pass at Kate. In order for Ben to rule his kingdom, he needed a queen. His last attempt, his try with Juliet, ended in failure. A failure so bitter that Ben sent Juliet's lover, Goodwin, on a dangerous spy mission which would eventually lead to his death. Ben showed Juliet Goodwin's grave and cursed "you are mine." However, the only thing that came from that was an uneasy truce.

With Kate, he could literally find a new partner-in-crime. Ben possessed the one thing that Kate wanted: freedom and the lack of accountability for her actions. Ben could manipulate events in such a fashion where those dreams could come true (and perhaps he did during the O6 arc where Kate basically got no punishment for any of her crimes).

We don't know the full extent of the beach meeting, the proposed deals or what the final response was between the two parties. It seemed that Ben was rejected, and Kate thrown in an uncomfortable choice. She had feelings for Jack (who knew and kept her secrets) but was attracted to the bad boy, Sawyer. When Ben found out about her magnetic connection with Sawyer, he pounced - - - basically pitting Jack and Sawyer in a deadly love triangle.

Ben needed Jack's surgical skills to operate on his tumor. He knew that Jack would not cooperate with him. He tried to lure Jack into cooperation by having Juliet get a professional friendship started between them, then push it towards a pseudo relationship. Ben knew from the beginning that Juliet would play along with the game while at the same time try to double cross Ben. Ben wanted Juliet and Jack to bond so he can control them as a couple. If Jack fell for Juliet, Ben had the leverage to make Jack do his bidding.

Ben made Kate make a choice of who would live and die between her potential lovers. Would she choose Jack, who represented her future, or Sawyer, who represented her past?

Looks and actions can be deceiving; when Kate returned to the Bear Cages after rebuffing Ben's advances, she looked at the forlorn Sawyer in a new light. She must have realized that Ben knew Jack was more valuable to the Others than an independent troublemaker in Sawyer. Perhaps her true feelings swelled up inside her. Maybe it was a small spark of human kindness. But Kate did something she would not have done in the past without some reward - - - climbed into Sawyer's cage and made love to him.

It was a passionate, wanton display of lust that was captured by the security monitors for Jack to see.

This also fit into Ben's grand scheme - - - for if Jack had any romantic feelings for Kate, they were shattered by her shagging his obstructionist rival.

But was Kate's fling with Sawyer true love or pity sex for a condemned soul?

Afterward, Kate and Sawyer were put on a work gang building the runway. Jack began to get closer with Juliet in a way to plot against Ben. So in one respect, Ben's plan was coming together. He had separated the castaways into two groups so they would not work together. He put Juliet and Jack into one joint venture against him; something that he knew about and could out flank.

But Kate's relationship with Sawyer never went any deeper to full, complete romantic love.

In the cages on Hydra Island, Pickett asked Kate if she loves Sawyer and she responds that she does.  After the camp split, Kate went back to the Barracks for a little while, and she and Sawyer spent the night together. As Jack, Sayid, Hurley, Sawyer, and Kate leave the island on the chopper, Sawyer whispered something in Kate's ear, to her confusion. He kisses her and jumps off the chopper and into the ocean.

Prior to the Oceanic 6's return to the island, Sawyer tells Horace that he had a "thing for this girl once", but after three years, can barely remember her face. However, upon seeing Kate, he is awash with nostalgia, but it is short-lived as he reminds a worried Juliet that "nothing's changed", and that he's with her [Juliet]. After a young Ben gets shot by Sayid, Kate and Sawyer attempt to save his life by bringing Ben to the Others.

After Juliet's death, Sawyer leaves the main group, choosing to go at it alone. Kate, worried for his well-being, follows him back to the Barracks. She apologizes for Juliet's death, and starts to blame herself for the death by returning to the island.

Kate and Sawyer appear to be star-crossed lovers by their own choice. When Sawyer winds up back on shore after the helicopter escape, he drinks with Juliet on the beach. When the world goes strange (flash back in time), Sawyer becomes closer to Juliet than he ever did with Kate. So was Sawyer merely using Kate as a companion, or did he ever have true feelings for her. We could assume he did because he sacrificed himself to save her (in the helicopter).

So why did they not complete their romantic bond when both of them left the island in Frank's Ajira plane? Sawyer had lost his Juliet. Kate had lost her Jack. Both had lost their "spouses" after living with them for some time. Kate's relationship with O6 Jack fell a part before they returned to the island. Sawyer's love for Juliet was cruelly taken away from him - - - and he blamed Jack.

We don't believe Sawyer and Kate got together in the post-island mainland since they did not wind up with each other in the Sideways afterlife. So what was the Bear cage sex supposed to represent? Animal instincts? Fear released as passion? A way to make an terrible situation bearable?

One would have thought that the shared island experience, the good and the bad, would have made Sawyer and Kate a close couple in the mainland. They could have lived together happily ever after since their pre-815 personal baggage had been resolved on the island, for good and ill.

When rules of law and order breaks down, humans tend to fall back to their primitive survival modes. They tend to get selfish, self-centered and looking for instant gratification since the rules do not apply anymore. The island was a test ground for the animal tendencies of man when society's rules are suspended and there is little to no responsibility for one's actions. Kate and Sawyer thrived on that aspect of the island. So why could they have not found happiness together post-island?

One explanation would be that Kate never cared for Sawyer. That her "deal" with Ben was to become Sawyer's lover to control him. Kate would be the "double agent" that Ben needed in order to get inside the 815 camp and isolate its power-leaders. Kate stayed with Sawyer for a short time in order to get something she wanted - - - freedom and escape from the island. But Ben would not grant (or could not it seems due to Jacob's candidate power) Kate her freedom while the 815ers posed a threat to his dictatorship. So if you believe Kate was just acting with Sawyer in order to con him into submission, well played Kate. But in the heat of conflict, danger and near death experience - - - we think that Kate really did have true feelings for Sawyer, and his shelter puppy dog looks, to give Kate's heart a jolt of compassion and passion.

For unwritten in her back story is one of abuse. If it was sexual in nature, it could show why Kate's attitude towards sex was more for the manipulation of men than finding romance and stability in her life. She fled Florida when she felt her husband would find out about her past. She fled the island instead of going after Sawyer after he jumped from the helicopter. She got rid of Jack after she got a wrist slap from the court system in the O6 story arc. She never saw men as being a necessary part of her being. She never connected a physical relationship with love, but with power or self-preservation. So Kate's animal instinct for survival difficult situations encompassed much of her relationships with the men in her life. So much so that it clouded her feelings and ability to find and nurture true love.

Kate's passion for Sawyer was real, but it was lost. It may have been the first time that she took charge of her sexual desires and threw herself on a man she thought would be soon dead. She may have thought Sawyer was the one chance for survival and escape. But Kate never saw far enough ahead in a traditional viewpoint of marriage, home and family to have the bond that true soul mates find in their relationships.

Likewise, Sawyer had no basis for truly caring about any woman. His entire pattern was to love them and leave them. He feared stability because that meant he would lose his freedom. It would cramp his style. He could no longer run wild. He would be trapped in his old man's life - - - a dreadful, suicidal life. So Sawyer consciously kept all the women in his life at bay. He would use them, then throw them away. He needed to be constantly in motion, like a shark in the ocean. It was only when he was trapped with Juliet that he found some comfort in a "normal" relationship in a "normal" home life. At that point, Sawyer believed that he would never return to his past. The 1970s Dharma was going to be his life, forever. And Juliet was the best part of it.

How three years with Juliet changed Sawyer to the extent that he was a new man is not out of the question. Animal instincts can be tamed by the right woman and under the right circumstances. In Kate's situation, she also had a three year window of normalcy with Jack and Aaron - - - the suburban housewife, that she would learn to abhor. So it is possible that deep down, in the same comfortable situations of a classic American home life, Sawyer and Kate would not have been compatible.

So the Bear Cage may have been just what it seemed: instinctive animal passion brought upon by the stressful circumstances of captivity, danger and possibility of impending death.

KATE AND BEN'S DEAL

We know Kate was supposed to be the lead character in the original manuscripts for the series. But in the rush of the pilot and early screenings, Jack emerged from an early dramatic death candidate to the leader of the survivors.

A pivotal plot point was contained in the episode "A Tale of Two Cities."

Jack, Kate and Sawyer have been captured by the Others. Unknown to them, they have been taken to a secondary island, Hydra, and held in cells (Jack inside the facility and Kate & Sawyer in outside polar bear cages).

Jack wakes up in a holding cell. He sees chains across the ceiling. He seems to be on some kind of table. He looks at the inside of his elbow, which has a band-aid on it where something had been injected or blood given. He tries to open some kind of hatch/door but it is locked. Some kind of electronic device used to "communicate" is on the wall, but it does not seem to work. Jack sees another door on the opposite side of the room, but when he walks toward it he collides with a glass wall blocking his way. Water is dripping from the ceiling. Jack tries to break the glass, unsuccessfully. He shouts for Kate, but there is no reply. 

Kate wakes up in a bathroom with "Mr. Friendly," Tom,  standing over her. He indicates a clean towel, a new bottle of shampoo and an unwrapped bar of soap, and tells her to take "a nice hot shower." She refuses to shower in his presence, but Tom laughs and tells her she's not his type; he then leaves. Kate sees that she too has a band-aid on her arm. 

Sawyer wakes in an outdoor  zoo cage. He looks around and sees speakers and a big tube with an unknown DHARMA logo. Also, he notices other nearby structures, including a cage similar to his, with Karl inside it. Sawyer tries to get answers from him, but the man does not respond. Sawyer looks around his cage some more and sees a strange contraption/button inside that has a large "button" with a knife and fork painted on it. He tries to figure it out, and pushes the button. A "Warning" sound goes off. Sawyer pushes the button again, the same sound goes off. As he is about to push the button for a third time, the prisoner in the cell opposite warns him not to. Sawyer pushes the button anyway, and receives a painful electric shock. 

We learn fairly quickly that Hydra station was for animal experimentation. It is also away from the main island, which adds another level of security and therefore danger to the castaways. Each castaway had been apparently "injected" with something in their arm. We would later learn that Sawyer has a chest scar, as Ben shows him that he is trapped on the island, that contains an explosive device set to go off with high blood pressure. Most people believe Ben was bluffing the con man, but Sawyer believed him enough to cooperate and control his anger and rage to escape.

It is clear that this episode shows the brilliance of Ben's evil mind. He has taken three strong willed survivors and put them into a situation where he can play each their fears, desires and self-interest off each other.

But the key plot point was the beach scene.

After Kate's encounter with Tom, she takes a shower. When she emerges, she finds that someone has taken her clothes and left her a dress instead. She puts it on, reluctantly. Tom and three Others bring her to a beach, where "Henry" is waiting at a covered table with chairs, freshly cooked food, utensils, and coffee, with a pair of handcuffs on the side. He tells her to handcuff herself or she gets no coffee. 

She asks "what did you do with Sawyer and Jack?" But "Henry" notices that she started the question with Sawyer and not Jack. Kate asks for her clothes, "Henry" tells her they burned them. When she asks why he's doing all this, "Henry" responds that he gave her a dress to make her feel "like a lady," fresh food to make her feel at home, allowed her a view of the beach because her friends are seeing the same beach, and utensils to make her feel civilized. He tells Kate that he gave all those things to her so she'll have something to hold on to, because "the next two weeks will be very unpleasant."

After some experimentation, and with the help of a large rock Sawyer found outside the cell, he soon figures out the mechanism that delivers food and water. The water streams out a pipe into a trough, kibble falls on the ground as well as a large fish biscuit -- animal food. As Sawyer drinks the water, Tom returns and he puts Kate into the cell that Karl had occupied. He takes off her cuffs. She also has visible cuts from the handcuffs and Tom remarks "cut you up pretty bad, didn't they." Tom, noticing that Sawyer was able to obtain food, first congratulates him, and then mocks him by telling him that the bears figured it out in two hours.  Kate is in the cell across from Sawyer's, and he tries to make her feel better by joking around. She seems distraught, so Sawyer asks if she wants something to eat. Kate says yes, so Sawyer throws her a biscuit which she eats pitifully.

And the unsaid aspects of the beach scene hover over the rest of this story arc.

Apparently, if Kate was still hungry upon her return to the cage, then she must have not eaten with Ben on the beach. That would mean that Kate decided not to cooperate with Ben. But what was the proposal(s)?

We know that Ben had risen to power by being brutal and controlling of the Others. But as king, he wanted to solidify his kingdom with a queen. Juliet had refused his romantic overtures, so Ben killed her lover and vowed to keep her a prisoner on "his" island. We could assume that in the beach conversation, Ben made a similar demand: Kate would work with him (or be his consort) or one of her loves would die.  When Ben picked up "Sawyer's" name first in Kate's concern, Sawyer got the chest bomb. (Some could argue that was the plan all along since Ben really needed Jack to do spinal surgery on him.)

Ben had all the intel on Kate's past, so he probably used it against her. Criminal minds think a like, and Ben was a master of leverage. He could have used Kate's secrets to claim that he could turn her over to the authorities and receive maximum punishment if she did not cooperate. Kate was always a runner; a person who never wanted to face her responsibility or accountability for her actions. She also had in the past used then discarded her lovers when she needed to keep running from the law. Kate could have decided to cut a deal to "stay" on the island, i.e. to be Ben's double agent.

It would then make sense why Kate demanded to go on ALL the remaining missions. If she was Ben's inside spy, she could tell the Others exactly what the castaways were planning to do. Juliet was a later obvious choice as a triple spy, using Jack's affection for her to get herself into camp leadership and trust roles (as a medical professional helping Claire), but also to balance or confirm Kate's potential spy activities. 

The deal could have also been that Kate had to choose between Jack or Sawyer. Ben probably pressed her to choose Sawyer, since he needed Jack to turn his back his feelings on her. And it worked. Out of character, Kate made a move on Sawyer which Jack "conveniently" saw on the bear cage monitors. With Kate choosing Sawyer as her island lover, Jack was heartbroken - - - and fell in line to help Ben.

It would not have been out of character for Kate to sell out Jack by pretending to bond with Sawyer. But like all Kate's decisions, she did not follow through very long with Sawyer (only enough to escape from the Hydra station.) There was conflict in Kate's mind since she immediately started to plan a rescue mission, but it was Jack who told her to NEVER return. When she did try a rescue mission, we saw the shock on her face when she saw Jack playing toss with Tom in the Barracks yard. Jack was suddenly integrated into the enemy camp - - -  and he looked happy and content. Kate was shocked - - - and she was taken away with the impression that Jack was lost to her.

At that moment, Kate's "bad" decision in choosing Sawyer over Jack was apparent. It was a decision that would haunt her for the rest of her life. She would only "remember" the pain and deep love for Jack when she awoke her soul in the sideways afterlife. This is the only rational explanation of why Kate would be so clingy to Jack in the sideways church at the End. She got her one second chance to be forever in love with Jack - - - something that would have not happened if not for her "deal" with Ben on the Hydra beach.

LEADERS

The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on. - - Walter Lippman

If leadership was a central theme to the drama of the show, how did the characters pass "the final test?"

Jack did leave Hurley in charge of the island. A very, very, very reluctant Hurley in charge of the island. But it is inferred that Ben was very "beneficial" in Hurley's island reign, so much so that Hurley was rewarded with heavenly reunion with Libby. (In the succession plan, that would leave Ben in charge of the island and sideways view, with the dual knowledge that only Eloise had).

Locke was only briefly in charge of the group when the time skips happened after Ben screwed things up in the FDW. However, Locke was a pawn in Christian smoke monster's plot to get Jack back to the island in order to thwart, kill Jacob to find MIB's alleged loophole (which may be the same as everyone else on the island - - - get to the sideways plane of existence, the after life, from the way station island).

Flocke was a more successful faux leader, who ruled like Ben and Widmore  did the Others, by an iron fist and no mercy. But Flocke was not a real human being, and he wanted to leave no one behind (as his mental state, if any, was to destroy all human candidates in order to escape his prison.)

Sayid was only briefly in charge of his Iraqi torture unit. But when push came to shove, he betrayed his uniform, killed a superior, let a prisoner escape, then became a U.S, CIA operative. On the island, Sayid refused a full leadership role (except on a few rescue missions) because he could not trust himself.

Sawyer was in charge of the beach castaways ("by default," as Hurley said) but that time Sawyer tried to "act" like a leader, but as a lone wolf con-man it was impossible for him to adapt. However, in the time warp arc, Sawyer did become a leader of his castway time travelers by becoming the sheriff of the barracks, waiting for the time skip to send them back. It was during this three year period that Juliet apparently tamed the wild Sawyer beast.

Kate led a few rescue missions, but tried to avoid becoming the leader of either the beach castaways or the candidates forum. She always put her own self-interests above other people. Even when she claimed to have "saved" Claire in the end by getting her on the plane, Kate could have stayed and gone back to try to save Jack, but she did not. She only wanted to get off the island. There were no tears in her decision.

Jacob was the leader who hid in the statue. He commanded through his liaison, Alpert, who in turn, gave instructions to Ben (who would twist things so he had the power.)  Alpert led the quiet Other near revolt against Ben, when he gave the file to Locke to make Locke the leader (by killing Cooper, his father, by Sawyer's hand.) Jacob assumed the leadership of the island at the request of his Crazy Mother, and regretted his actions that led to his own brother's demise (by the hands of the smoke monster). A leader with such guilt, shame and regret was never a good leader.

Widmore was a born bully of a leader. He was exiled from the island, and made his sole mission in life to return to recapture it. He used his inner strength to gather a vast fortune to fund his quest. In a certain respect, he succeeded at the task as he returned to the island, and indirectly defeated Flocke. But as a leader, he got blindsided by the vengeful rage of Ben, who killed Widmore for killing Alex. Many leaders find it appropriate to lead with "an eye for an eye" mission statement.

In their own way, and collectively, no one person was a great leader. Each had terrible personal faults and lacked command of their people and circumstances (which led to many lives lost.)

A BROTHER?

Evil begets evil.

Without the time travel arc, where tortured soul Sayid kills a still innocent child in young Ben (who is taken to the temple and reborn as "a different" person, "one of the island") we could assume that Ben would have grown up as a bookish, meek man (like in the sideways teacher arc).

But instead, Ben turns into an evil, angry, vengeful tyrant.

But if the island "saved" Ben thorough the temple waters (and water was a means of summoning a smoke monster) one could resume that Ben was transformed into a smoke monster.

When Jacob killed his brother, the smoke monster was released from the light cave. We assume that MIB was the manifestation of Jacob's dead brother as a smoke monster. That is how MIB was created, from the waters of the island. Likewise, we can assume that since Ben was taken to the temple for a water ceremony (such as what happened with Sayid), then Ben would have been created into a smoke monster as well (and perhaps a better representation or brother to Jacob).

Ben was loyal to Jacob like a younger brother would have been under normal circumstances. But like a younger brother, Ben was upset that his younger sibling did not give him the attention, admiration and acknowledgment he thought he deserves. That was the focal point, the weakness, that MIB used to kill Jacob.

It makes some logical sense that only another smoke monster could kill another immortal entity on the island. But since the Crazy Mother's law that Jacob and his brother could not harm each other, that "loophole" was Ben.

MIB would have had to created a vast, complex and long term plan to even reach the loophole stage. He would have have spent centuries trying to find the right people to use, manipulate and sacrifice to get his "loophole." MIB knew about the island's special powers, and what it would take to create a smoke monster. So, by allowing humans to work on the island, try to tap the potential of the island energy, he got the humans to create an inexact time travel machine which the mixed up 815ers go back to encounter there nemesis, Ben, when he was an innocent boy. Already mixed up and confused, a time traveling Sayid was the perfect "assassin" to put MIB's final plan into action: shooting Ben gave the opening to create a smoke monster who would become Jacob's "assassin." It would have been the perfect check mate after a long game of cat and mouse between Jacob and MIB.

MINIMALISM

Minimalism was a trend in sculpture and painting that arose in the 1950s and used simple, typically massive, forms. It is also an avant-garde movement in music characterized by the repetition of very short phrases that change gradually, producing a hypnotic effect.

Is it possible to strip away all the tangents, subplots, tangents and secondary characters to find a Minimalistic LOST? 

By looking to simple, large story elements, can LOST be condensed into a more focused driven drama?

I think you could condense the entire series into five characters trapped on the island. You don't have to change the characters personalities or motivations. You just have five large puzzle pieces to focus the action and interactions. If LOST was about relationships, then a concentrated, intense story between these characters living through in untenable situations would be epic.

I think you can start with the starting point of a single person living on the island (like Crazy Mother when Claudia's Roman ship wrecked off the island's shore): Ben.

Then, like in that back story, only four new characters need to wind up floating ashore (from a plane crash, ship wreck, booze cruise disaster-fight going overboard into the ocean, etc.): Sawyer, the con man; Locke, the bitter dreamer; Kate, the fugitive muse; and Jack, the miracle doctor.

The island, through Ben, is a dark and dangerous place. Ben's back story is simple. He was brought to the island by his bitter, alcoholic father (who blames him for his mother's death). Ben is extremely unhappy being a peon in the Dharma labor camp, so he seeks revenge against everyone because no one acknowledges him. He kills them all. And once he is alone on the island, he goes a little crazy.
(There is no need for guardians, magic, time travel or any other twisty tropes.) Just a young boy who turns himself into a serial madman.

 The rest of the characters could have been plane crash victims, a charter plane that goes off-course from Fiji, and ditches in a storm. The minimalistic background for each person on that plane:

Kate: still running away from the authorities for murdering her father;
Sawyer: searching for his parents' killer;
Locke: having quit his job, he is seeking adventure and purpose in his life; and
Jack: having a Thailand-like booze vacation to forget about his father's sudden passing.

Each of these passengers realize that surviving the plane crash was their second chance to live their lives the way they thought they would have if not sidetracked by the events in the back stories.

The plot lines are also fairly simple.

Kate, being the lone woman, would use her charms to get the men to protect and serve her.
Sawyer, also being a charmer, but a territorial possessive person, would push back to get what he would want.
Jack, being the lone professional, would seek compromise, balance and common sense to survive their ordeals.
Locke, being mindless and reckless, would seek to claim the island as its new demi-god.
Ben, who for all purposes, the current island god, would seek to enslave, manipulate and control the new arrivals until he tired of them or found them of no use.

Ben could start off as a sympathetic figure: a long, lost survivor of a different "tragedy." He can help the new castaways with food and shelter as a means of gaining their trust. A trust that his mental condition will twist over time into betrayal.

Kate could also have the initial upper hand. Men are drawn to her magnetic, gregarious personality. She is a little of "the girl next door" and a little tomboy. She is clever, witty and flirty. It is possible that she could see the benefit of getting close to all the men on the island. In fact, her charms would be the catalyst to learn the backgrounds of the other characters.

Sawyer is an anti-social element. He is a loner. He can find a person's weakness in order to exploit it to his own advantage. He had seduce women to steal their money. He seeks a challenge, and on the island that turns to Kate. He would find conflict in following other people's orders or directions. He could easily be labeled a saboteur by evil Ben, as he starts to divide and conquer this group.

Locke has the arrogance of self-delusion of greatness. He believes himself to be the great outback hunter trapped in a shipping clerk's body.  His lack of leadership skills (and results) will put him at the bottom rung in the new island order. The others will not take him seriously. He will become resentful, cold, and at times, lash out verbally and physically. This could parallel the madness that engulfed Ben during his long time on the island.

Jack is not only trapped on the island, but trapped in his own ethics of "saving" people. He will do anything to save his fellow islanders, to the point of being blindsided by their manipulations of him. He may be an initial figurehead leaders, but the people around him are trying to be the puppet masters behind the facade. He will be challenged first by Locke, then by Sawyer. He will be betrayed by Ben (and Kate, who uses Sawyer's physical desires to her advantage.). The love triangle turns into a Bermuda Triangle of hate, suspicion, arguments, and shuffling of alliances.

Things would get to the tightrope stage when Ben makes his move on Kate (like the beach scene when she was kidnapped with Sawyer and Jack and taken to the Barracks). When Kate is repulsed by Ben's advances (and his "deal" to make her queen of his island paradise), Ben turns into a raging smoke monster of hate and revenge. This would pit two hot blooded avengers (Ben and Sawyer) against each other. This conflict would appease both Jack and Locke, for they have positioned themselves in a faith vs. science resolve for survival, with each believing their position will lead to safety, rescue or most of all, winning Kate's heart.

But at a certain point, Kate realizes that all her flirtations, manipulations, promises and passions have turned the other characters into cavemen. She can see their personalities change, and she become afraid at what she has done. The more she attempts to withdraw from their conflicts, the more the anger and resentment levels increase.

The close quarters of just a few strong characters could lead to excellent drama, action and plot twists without using the ruse of magic, time travel, supernatural elements or invading mercenaries.

THE THREE STOOGIES

Ben, Hurley and Locke had the deepest connections to the island. Yet, they all played the fool as their personal stories unfolded over the six seasons.

Ben had a Napoleon complex: he wanted power, control and respect as many small minded leaders throughout history have come to grasp.

Hurley had an inferiority complex: he wanted love, respect and a purpose in life but he had no drive or ambition to live his own life.

Locke had grandeur issues: he believed he had a higher calling than what society and authority targeted him for; he was a dreamer who had no skills to make his dreams come true. He had a self-destructive personality.

So why was the island's connection to these three men so strong?

The island made fools of them.

Ben worked his way up from a lonely school boy with an abusive, drunken father to a mass murderer psychopathic leader of the Others. But in the end, his loyalty to Jacob, his perceived father figure, was a farce. This led to Ben becoming a broken man.

Hurley was a lonely boy who put himself in a shell because he blamed himself for his father's abandonment. He had only one true friend, who betrayed him after Hurley kept his lottery winnings a secret. Hurley believed he was cursed by the Numbers, and that led to his growing psychological problems, including the ability to speak to the dead.

Locke was a lonely man who could not find acceptance and a real family. He bounced from odd job to odd job, to being an outcast in a commune, to a pigeon taken advantage of by others, including his own father. His desire to be a part of a traditional family structure literally crippled him, making him a bitter man who could not see the hope that Helen could have given him.

If the island was an intelligent being as many have suggested, then it used its magical resources to build up and tear down these three men. It raised up the inferiority complex Ben into a limitless, powerful tyrant, only to pull the rug from underneath his reign and give it to a real monster, MIB. Hurley's mental problems were enhanced while on the island - - - the reoccurring Numbers sounded like bullhorns in his head of his Curse. The ability to talk to dead people. And the new friends around him started to die - - - including the one woman who found him interesting. It was like he was a mental punching bag. Locke seemingly was given the greatest second chance of all time. The plane crash allowed him to walk again. He could become the outback hero on the island. He could find the respect, admiration, loyalty and affection from the castaways. He could lead them to his promised land. But Locke was merely a prop in other people's plans. When things did not go well, Locke tried to rationalize his failures as new opportunities, even though it cost him colleague's lives such as Boone. He was told that he had to sacrifice himself for the island. Martyrdom was not the goal for a young John Locke, so he balked at the notion - - - but was killed anyway. He was barely a footnote to other people because he had lived a measly, stupid life.

The island must have had a cruel sense of humor.

It gave Ben, Hurley and Locke a glimpse of what they most wanted, then tore it from their grasp.

So why would the island intelligence be so childish, so cruel?

Because it is probably a childlike intelligence. It connected to Ben, Hurley and Locke because it too was an outcast from its own society. It had the same deep, dark emotional issues of Ben, Hurley and Locke. The island could not express or vent its anger so it had to act through visitors and its smoke monsters. The island was the puppeteer who smashed its playthings together to release some of its own repressed abandonment feelings.

The island as a lonely, supernatural child lost in space, trapped in the Earth's gravitational pull, is an intriguing side story. Could it be the last of its kind? Could it have been abandoned by its parents or world much like the origin story of Superman? How could such a being with immense power want to hide in plain sight instead of ruling an entire planet? It may have never been instructed on what to do - - - or it was told about certain rules to follow. Or, worse, it was trapped in island form and unable to make a physical transition to our world. That could be just as frustrating as what was going through the minds of Ben, Hurley and Locke.

And this can explain why many aspects of LOST have a theme of cruelty. Unsupervised children often can be cruel, in their play and their outlook on life. A magnifying glass to burn ants may have been a human curiosity, but an island superbeing doing the same to human adults is another thing.

BEST ACTORS

LOST had memorable performances. But in the Mount Rushmore of LOST acting, we must narrow the field down to four individuals:

LOCKE

Terry O'Quinn had the greatest range of situations in which to perform. He did quite well. Received Emmy Award nominations in 2005, 2007, and 2010 in the category of Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of John Locke.  He won the 2007 award beating out, among other nominees, fellow Lost actor Michael Emerson.

BEN

Michael Emerson came to the series as a guest star, but his performance captured the imagination of the fans and producers to where he became a main character. He won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series in 2009 for his role as Ben.

DESMOND

Henry Ian Cusick was another guest star who made an impact to become a regular cast member. Cusick, after three guest starring episodes during Season 2, became a series regular at the beginning of the third season.  Cusick was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor In A Drama Series at the 2006 Emmys for his performance as Desmond in the episode "Live Together, Die Alone, Part 1".

ELOISE

Fionnula Flanagan was an accomplished actress prior to a guest role in the series. However, her portrayal of Eloise Hawking made her a mysterious center piece to future story lines bridging the island, Dharma and the Others. As Ben was seen as evil incarnate, Eloise was a much more sinister and powerful force behind the scenes.  When she was in a scene, you could see the mental gears churning some devious plot.

One can now realize that these four characters were pivotal in the final two seasons of LOST. O'Quinn's character was reborn in the form of Flocke. Ben's power struggle with Jacob and Widmore led to the chaotic final chase to find a final island guardian. Eloise was all knowing in both worlds, and tried to keep them worlds separated so she would not lose her son, Daniel. And Desmond became the bridge between the island and the sideways realms. In some ways, these four actors pushed themselves in the prime, leading roles as the series wound down.

THE NEW DHARMA

Ben Linus is the ruthless CEO of Dharma. He obtained his power by leading a coup against the former chief executive, Horace, who struggled in finding the magic life force energy, and Juliet's former lover that Ben killed in "a bus accident."

Ben's focus in recruiting Juliet to Dharma was her research in infertility problems. Ben wanted to use her knowledge in order to understand why in a petrie dish filled with the same elements of a human womb, life could not be created and sustained to term. The missing component was the life force found in all living things. Ben wanted to find out how the life force created or sparked new life.

Ben's other problem was the failed fertility experiments where he had dozens of women dying in their third trimester. It was becoming a disposal problem. As a result, Ben would lock down the Dharma facilities and become the tyrant he was on the island. This was his reaction to his rival's alleged advancements in "life source research" coming from spies Ben planted in Widmore's facilities.

Ben would recruit a down and out surgeon who ratted out his own father in a medical malpractice case to be head of his research department. As a result of his own initial cover-up, Jack lost his hospital privileges and started his downward spiral toward drug and alcohol abuse. But Ben took advantage of Jack's personal misfortune and gave him a job, a purpose, and a leadership role in something bigger than what Jack was told. But Ben would also use Jack's own weaknesses to control him. Over time, Jack and Juliet would find a common bond in realizing that they were trapped in a madman's plan. They would begin their own escape plan to leave Dharma (which they realized the only past escape for Dharma people was death.)

Just as Jack and Juliet were about to launch their escape plan, Ben throws them a curve: human test subjects. Juliet had been wrapped up in her own life's work of saving pregnant women. Now she is rocked with guilt if Ben was going to forge ahead with more deadly experiments on innocent women. So she has a conflict with Jack, who needs her help in order to escape. So Jack seeks an alternative avenue, and starts to align himself with new assets: Kate and Sawyer, the new test subjects.

Here is where some of the island romantic friction begins to assert itself between Jack, Kate, Sawyer and Juliet.  As the heat is turned up, Ben suddenly becomes jealous and threatens them all with severe sanctions. Kate and Sawyer are then clued in on what a mad house Dharma was becoming, so they agree to work with Juliet and Jack in order to escape. In exchange, Juliet and Jack hold off on actually experimenting on Kate or Sawyer, faking data or giving fake injections to keep Ben at bay.

As Kate is prone to run away from problems and authority, Sawyer begins to revel in the concept that overthrowing Ben and taking his position is worthy prize for a lowly con man. He begins his own alternative path to wealth and power within Dharma's own ranks, using his charm to entangle other scientists in his revolutionary thinking.

Things get complicated when the Dharma Widmore rivalry gets personal. Instead of raiding talent, the companies begin to actually physically attacking each other's facilities. A bitter turf battle begins, and it pits highly placed researchers like Jack and Juliet as targets  in the cross fire. But just as things get real nasty and dangerous, Jack's group encounters a new, low level janitor and former monk named Locke, who has some crazy ideas of his own. Locke is a plant from the guardians of the life force order. His mission is to gather information, assess the situation, and sabotage Dharma's ultimate research and path to the life force spring which could include eliminating any people in his way.

With another faction inside Dharma, office politics will turn into open warfare over the destiny of the research and the lives of the researchers. Ben will become more paranoid and cruel. He will hire paramilitary assistants to keep his people in line. He will have a siege mentality that Jack and the others will try to exploit to their advantage.

But the best plans derail when Locke, being Locke, stumbles across underground tunnels that lead him to a frozen chamber containing hieroglyphs. Inside, he finds a wooden donkey wheel implanted into the stone wall, with an green light flickering inside. He does not know what it means, but not thinking logically (but believing  he is destined to be a super hero), he turns the wheel. His action leads to a cascade of terrible events as the universe itself become unbalanced.

LITTLE MAN COMPLEX

“ There are but two powers in the world, the sword and the mind. In the long run the sword is always beaten by the mind. ” - - - Napoleon Bonaparte

A Napoleon complex is one of self-absorbed grandeur.  Some psychoanalysis of Bonaparte claim that his small stature but high dream expectations led him to become a tyrannical monster hell bent on conquering all of Europe. Great historical figures often have grand visions of their legacy. What better way to be remembered than enslaving an entire continent?

There were two characters who fall into the emperor category of conquest and control: Ben and Widmore.

Widmore was not a small man. He had apparently grown up on the island. He knew it contained serious power source. He wanted to control it for his own ambitions. He was once the leader of the Others, the self-proclaimed guardians of the island. Whether Widmore knew of or believed in Jacob is unclear. He had a relationship with a powerful woman, Eloise Hawking, and had a brilliant academic son, Daniel. But it was his lust for power and privilege that got Widmore expelled - - - his crime was having a child off the island (Penny) with another unknown woman. Why the island would have such a moral barometer on an out-of-wedlock daughter while allowing the Others to kidnap and kill visitors makes no logical sense. But being LOST, logic or common sense are not necessary elements in any story line.

Once forced to leave the island, Widmore used his ego and talents to build up a vast business empire. But that empire was only a means of gaining enough power to find his island and reclaim it. Widmore's quest was to return to the island, and get revenge on the man who kicked him off it: Ben.

Ben was a small man. His small size fits into the Napoleon grandeur of over-compensating for an inferiority complex. Ben did not have a good childhood. He had no close friends. His father blamed him for his mother's death at childbirth. He was lonely. He dreamed that people would look up at him in awe and fear. He wanted to control his own destiny. He wanted to rebel against the Dharma lock-step. He still had a measure of compassion when he did not kill Alex or her mother Rousseau even though Widmore had ordered it as part of Ben's initiation. Instead, Ben took baby Alex under his care and control. Perhaps this was his first lesson in turning an adverse situation into an advantage.

Both Widmore and Ben were clever in making other people do their dirty business. They both had elaborate plans to get what they wanted from other people. Ben used psychological mind games to confuse then submit people to his will. Ben became frustrated and angry when people, especially women, did not follow his orders.

When Ben got to the leadership role he wanted, he ruled like a tyrant. It was his way or the highway. In that way, even though he was a "bad" character, he was a compelling character. There is a part of human nature that would lash out like Ben did because of his back story. There is always an inner demon that burns to be liked and loved by other human beings; but when that does not happen - - - one becomes bitter, angry and more controlling over people around him.

 Ben was the most complex character. He went through the rollercoaster of being good (as a boy) to bad (as an adult) to at least repented as a dead soul.

THE MAN BEHIND THE ISLAND

This cannot be a viable theory because the character of Ben was not in the original story lines. But it can be viable alternative explanation of the story if one considers the key to unraveling the mysteries is to work backwards from the sideways end.

In the sideways world, Ben went to an island with his father who took a job with Dharma. However, in the sideways story arc, they left the island for an unknown reason. Ben finished his education. He received a doctorate in modern European history and came to be a high school European history teacher.

We can assume in the sideways story arc, everyone is dead because that was what we were told by Christian. The question remains what about the overlap elements and events. Which came first, the chicken or the egg; the island or the sideways realm?

For this discussion, we assume that the sideways world is the true barometer of the series "reality." In this situation, we have Ben actually having a normal single parent childhood (abet with a short detour to the island run by a cult leader), but he is well grounded in a responsible position as a teacher. He lives with his father which means that they got along. However, for whatever reason, sideways Ben may have resented his fate in life; he did not have power or influence nor the character to change his lot in life. 

He is a single man who has devoted his life to learning about history. History is repeat with stories, chilling characters, epic battles and dangerous amorous plots to overthrow powerful rulers. He would have known about all the trials, tribulations, contests, and personalities of historical figures of Europe and the lands of conquest. That information would have been fertile ground for Ben to imagine himself transposed amongst the greats in history . . . to create his own personal fantasy history.

Ben's knowledge of the past is clearly impressed upon the elements contained on the island. It has features from Roman times, to ancient Egyptian temples and rituals, to the grand industrial revolutions of technology and militarism.

The island also contained the classic elements of history: rulers and followers, conflicts between bands of people; treaties, conflict, war and bloodshed; seizure of territory, to genocide. Ben transposed himself into the island just as a historian would imagine what those times were like in order to understand the motivations and mistakes. 

Ben was an unhappy follower. He found an opportunity to join the enemy. In order to prove his worth, he engineered the Purge. He killed his own father, which in many ancient cultures was the means to confirm and inherit power of the tribe. He began to rule like a dictator. He used fear to balance the politics of his inner circle. As he amassed more and more power, his vision of himself became grander - - - Napoleon in some respects. Instead of conquering other lands, he decided to conquer people: capture them and make them respect him. 

Ben dreamed of a world where he was the center of power; a pharoah like god among men. The imprint of a historian's eye is seen throughout the set and story lines of LOST. Perhaps, it was all Ben's heavenly diversion.

He could have been rewarded in the after life limbo we call the sideways realm with the opportunity to "live" an alternative life. He chose the opposite of his boring school teacher existence; he wanted to live the breathtaking levels of history. And he wanted to share the experience with people around him, such as Arzt, Rousseau and Alex. But at some point, Ben's emotions got ahead of his rational mind and caused many people collateral pain. It was coming to terms with that fictional but seemingly real collateral pain is why Ben decided not to move on with Hurley. 

Could the island events been the captive imagination of after life Ben? No, because the Ben character was never the starting point of the series. But since the series made so many strange twists and turns to lose its original direction, it is possible that the events were the post-death fantasies of a character like Ben.

BEN'S MANTRA

Ben's story could have been the most profound change. The character was not supposed to last more than two or three episodes, but the intense evil brought to the screen kept Ben in the series to the very end. From filler arc to full time character, that was the shifting sands of the LOST story line.

The writers were themselves lost in how to keep a critical darling of daring story telling sharp and new episode to episode. In various hits and misses (see, Nikki and Paulo), Ben captured the real danger of a mad man against the basically naive and overconfident surviviors.

As an adult, Ben sought power and control because those things were never a part of his childhood. He became so obsessed with changing his depressing, measly little life that he snapped and committed mass homicide in order to become the leader of the Others.

How can a shy, innocent boy turn into a mass murderer? Then why could many viewers be drawn into his character so much to call him their favorite?

Ben was extremely possessive of the objects, information and people around him. You can see a god-like demeanor in his thought processes, much like a Sim City game player has the god-like authority to build or destroy his town and people at will.

Since Ben did not have a great childhood, he wanted the things normal children had like possessions, objects, toys and adventures. So as an adult, those lost events wormed their way into his dark mind. Instead of material toys, he collected people to do his bidding. If he wanted a fertility specialist like Juliet, he would kidnap her. If he needed a spinal surgeon, he would bribe, manipulate and torture people to get cooperation. Everything around him was his to do what he liked . . . that was Ben's world view.

But at the same time, he pledged some sort of alliance with Jacob, the island master. But we don't think Ben ever saw or spoke to Jacob during Ben's leadership of the Others. We believe that he only got the information from Alpert, and took the myth and manipulated the Others to follow him. He controlled the natives by claiming to be the word of Jacob, when in fact, that was probably a lie.

It was only when Ben actually met Jacob with Flocke, that Ben broke down and his anger swelled enough to kill Jacob with a magic knife. As such, it doomed Ben to his own island damnation until out of pity, he was spared his own death.

Whether that single act of kindness which he never had during his life "changed" Ben to really become "one of the good guys" is not absolutely clear, but he did move the side to allow Jack and Hurley to take the position he most coveted - - - island guardian. Since he could never control the one thing he desired his entire life, the island, Ben at some point was at peace. It did not make up for all the bad things he did in his life, but at least now he realized the errors of his ways. Errors that would never be punished, even in the sideways after life.

KATE'S DEAL

During Michael betrayal during the rescue of Walt, Kate, Sawyer and Jack were captured by the Others. Jack was separated from the polar bear cages. Juliet was to work him over to gain his trust so Jack would agree to perform surgery on Ben.

Sawyer and Kate were captured to be slave labor to help the Others build a runway in the jungle. This is the runway that the Ajira plane would crash land on in Season 6. Why or how Ben would have known that when Kate and Sawyer were captured is another one of those logic flaws in the main story line.

We learned many things about Ben's past. He did not have a happy childhood. His mother died in childbirth, and his father hated him. At a young age, he was taken to a mysterious island. In school, he had only one friend, Annie, who apparently left with a large group (women and children) prior to the Incident. Ben never had a very good social life in school or as a young adult. He did not have the personable skills to charm the ladies.  We know that he came across as a stalker with his perceived relationship with Juliet. Ben's jealousy led to Juliet's lover's demise, and Ben's statement that he owned her. But she continued to reject him.

So when a new lady winds up in his camp, Ben takes it upon himself to try to impress Kate. Mr. Friendly takes Kate to the showers and gives her a new sun dress. She is taken to the beach to have a pleasant meal with Ben. He tries to lay on his charm; and infers that he can make her life better if she plays along.

Tom and three Others bring Kate to a breakfast meal with Ben; freshly cooked food, utensils, and coffee, with a pair of handcuffs on the side. Ben tells her to handcuff herself or she gets no coffee. She asks "what did you do with Sawyer and Jack?" But Ben notices that she started the question with Sawyer and not Jack. Kate asks for her clothes, but she is told they burned them. When she asks why he's doing all this,  Ben states that he gave her a dress to make her feel "like a lady," fresh food to make her feel at home, allowed her a view of the beach because her friends are seeing the same beach, and utensils to make her feel civilized. He tells Kate that he gave all those things to her so she'll have something to hold on to, because "the next two weeks will be very unpleasant." 

This scene is cut off before we learn the actual "details" of the deal Ben wanted to make with Kate. It is one of the holes in the story that could have set the stage for understanding the motivations of both Kate and Ben. We believe that Ben was trying to manipulate Kate in order to get her to convince Jack to operate on Ben. But it seems that this beach meal would have had more long term impact than just a manipulative promise - - - Ben was more effective at getting people to do his bidding out of fear than kindness.

We can infer that there was some mild pass made by Ben to Kate at the beach. That would explain why upon Kate's imprisonment in the bear cage, she had the carnal urge to jump Sawyer. Was this a reaction to a revolting deal ("be my island girlfriend") proposed by Ben? 

But we know Kate was just as manipulative with her good looks to control men to do her bidding. In some respects, Kate and Ben are similar loners.

It could have been as simple as promising Kate that she would get off the island after Ben had his surgery. Or that she had to give herself to him in order to save her friends from certain death.

In the O6 story arc, when the helicopter crash survivors made it back to LA, and crazy Jack calls Kate to the airport, I always felt that when Kate said she had to leave to "go back to him," that she reluctantly meant that she had to go home to Ben. (In reality, Kate needed to go back to Aaron.) But if "he" was "Ben," would have been a major plot twist bombshell. It would have put the beach meeting at a whole different level of devilish intrigue. Whose side was Kate on? She got away with murder because she went with Ben. She would lead a rich but unhappy life because that was her deal with the devil. That would be her punishment. Ben would get what he always wanted: a home and family life as part of the deal (abet a loveless marriage).

An alliance between Kate and Ben would have been a devious under-the-radar thread that would have turned viewer heads around like in the Exorcist. Clearly, they would have been the island power couple (which would mirror the theme when Eloise and Widmore were in charge of the island inhabitants).

The Kate and Ben beach scene could have led to much different and dynamic story line than what finally happened in both Kate and Ben's story arcs.  Why Kate returned to Jack in the end really does not make sense, since her memories of living with him in LA ended badly. She only wound up with Jack because Sawyer had found Juliet (which itself was odd because it took a time traveling passage for Sawyer to find a woman who made him grow up and take some responsibility.) But nothing was worse than Ben's apparent pining over Rousseau and his affection for Alex. Ben's sideways quest to have a happy life with Rousseau and Alex seems insane, because their island memories of him would be toxic. It would have been quite the twist in the church if Ben did go inside with Hurley, with Ben taking his place in a warm embrace with Ben (leaving Jack and Locke to mirror each other alone in the front pews of the church).

POWER AND LOSS

"People who have power look for fights. People who don't have power lose everything."  - - - Masashi Kishimoto

Who were the most powerful people in LOST?

Widmore was a powerful businessman who could do just about anything, including "faking" the 815 crash site with corpses. He was ruthless. He showed no mercy. He did everything he could get back control of the island, including sending mercenaries to kill everyone.

Ben was a powerful leader of the Others. He manipulated his followers by a combination of fear and mental brain washing. He also was ruthless and showed little mercy to his enemies. He helped wipe out Dharma compound by betraying his co-workers with nerve gas. That was his first coup; his second was exiling Widmore from the island.

Jacob was the island guardian. He had immense power of an immortal being. He could grant eternal life as he did to Alpert, but he could not bring back the dead to life. He could bring people to his island. He manipulated his followers through surrogates, adding a level hidden control over the people who believed in him. His followers would worship him but never see or hear him.

Eloise seemed to know everything about everyone. She knew the power of the island. She knew how to find the island. She knew how to manipulate people to get to the island. And she was the only person fully aware of what the sideways world was, and that awakening her son who make him leave her. If knowledge was power in the series (as I believe), then Eloise was a very powerful character who used it to her advantage.

But at the same time, Widmore lost his island conquest goal when he was killed by Ben.

Likewise, Ben lost his control and leadership of the Others when he killed Jacob.

And Jacob lost his followers when word spread that he had been killed by Ben and Flocke.

Widmore lost everything material in his life that he acquired under the most brutal means, but somehow he was rewarded with a blissful life in the sideways world.

Ben lost everything in his life, including his family, friends and followers, but he was somehow rewarded with a second chance in the sideways world where he did not have to move on. He was granted a similar reward as Eloise, the knowledge of the sideways world realm, and an opportunity to keep the fantasy world alive in his own mind.

Jacob had lost his family while on the island. He was trapped there as the light source guardian. He spent thousands of years trying to find a way to leave, but the smoke monster kept him imprisoned on the island. When ghost Jacob told the final candidates that when the fire (his light) would go out, he would be no more - - - it would seem that Jacob received no reward for his island service. He lost everything and everyone close to him.

CONTROLLING THE FUTURE

We can have peace if we let go of wanting to change the past and wanting to control the future. — Lester Levinson

It is probably universal for a person to want a few basic social acknowledgements in their life: acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment. It is when a person tries to go to extremes to reach those goals, he or she becomes anti-social.

In all of our character studies, the most extreme spectrum may have been Ben.

His back story is cruel. For no apparent reason, his parents decide to hike through the Oregon woods on December 19, 1964 while his mother, Emily, is very, very pregnant. As a result of the walk, she goes into premature labor. His father, Roger,  panics, but is there to deliver Ben. But his mother bleeds to death, sending Roger into a spiral of anger, depression and regret. He would blame Ben for killing his mother, which is a false statement  but it would haunt and change Ben forever.

After Ben's birth, a distraught Roger flags down a car driven by Dharma leader Horus. Horus and his wife, Olivia,  help the Linus family. It is this random meeting that would lead Roger and Ben to the island. Roger was unable to cope with the pressure of fatherhood, the loss of his wife, and the responsibility of caring for an infant. He drank heavily, and could not hold a job. This increased his hatred towards Ben. 

At some point, Roger reconnects with Horus, who invites him to work for Dharma. Roger accepts the offer, and Ben and his father reach the island with other new workers. But the cruel reality of Roger's life hits him again hard, when he finds that the job he gets is that of a lowly janitor. 

Ben has an opportunity to change his life on the island. He is an quiet 8 year old boy. He is smart, attentive, and polite, but extremely shy. His social skills have been repressed because of his father's mental abuse and alcoholic rages. Ben becomes bitter about his lot in life. He longs for a normal family life, and the Dharma group, even though they are nice people, cannot substitute for his family.

Ben's life was immediately different than from the states. The Dharma compound routinely faced attacks from the Hostiles, the native people on the island. Roger, now an alcoholic, neglected his son. Ben did make one friend on the Island - a young girl named Annie. On Ben's ninth birthday, Annie carved two dolls, likenesses of the two children, and Ben kept them for the next 30 years. That same night, he saw his mother's ghost in the jungle. He later packed his belongings and went out in search of her, and he came upon Richard Alpert, one of the Hostiles. Richard was intrigued to learn Ben had seen someone who'd died off the Island, and he said Ben may be able to join the Hostiles one day, if he was patient. 

Three years later, Ben thought he found his chance when he heard that Dharma had imprisoned one of the Hostiles. Ben brought the man a  book and food (earning Roger's abuse). Ben later broke him out of his cell, setting fire to a van to distract those watching. But the prisoner turned out not to be a Hostile at all - Sayid was a time traveler from Ben's future. Knowing what Ben would become, an evil psychopath, Sayid shot Ben in the jungle, leaving him for dead. Jin found the wounded Ben and brought him back to the Barracks where Juliet tried to operated on him and  Kate donated blood. When it became clear that they could not save him, they sought the help of Alpert. Alpert told the time travelers that if he took Ben, it would be irreversible; he would be changed forever. Ben was taken to the Other's Temple, where we would later assume he would have been put into the reincarnation pool like Sayid would be during the final season.  Apparently, the temple ritual  robbed Ben of his recent memories of being shot by Sayid (but we cannot be for certain) and changed him forever. According to Richard, from this point on, he would "always be one of us."

The Others returned Ben to the Dharma camp, but told him to be patient. When the time was right, he could join the Others. Young Ben was then primed with the mental time bomb of leaving his father and the Dharma collective. It was a long ten years or so that Ben endured living at the Dharma camp after his temple rebirth. 

Ben would remain with the camp, eventually becoming a "work man" like his father. But he remained in touch with the Others, and when Widmore ordered the Initiative eliminated, Ben sided with the Hostiles. On Ben's birthday one year, he  released gas that killed all the Dharma members. Ben killed his father personally with a separate gas canister, responding to years of ill treatment. Richard offered to retrieve Roger's body, but Ben declined.
Though he'd helped defeat the Others' enemies, Ben still answered to Widmore, and the two maintained a rivalry before and after the Purge. In 1988, Widmore ordered Ben to kill a Rousseau who'd crashed onto the Island. Ben discovered she had a baby girl and spared them both, kidnapping the baby Alex and bringing her to the Others. Widmore initially ordered the baby killed as well but eventually relented and allowed Ben to raise her. Widmore had a daughter, Penny, of his own with an unknown woman from off the Island. When Ben discovered this infidelity some years later, he had Widmore exiled from the island. Ben then replaced him as the leader of the Others. As leader, Ben frequently traveled to the mainland, developing a wide network of resources. He restricted most of his people from leaving the Island and used deception and secrecy to control them. Ben found himself a victim of secrecy as well - despite being the Others' leader, Ben never got to visit the Island's Protector Jacob.  Jacob communicated only through Richard and sent Ben instructions and lists to follow. It was a bit ironic that Ben's entire plan was to join then lead the Hostiles, but once he reached that position he continued to be controlled and put into his place by an unknown man, Jacob. 

Ben would become to associate Jacob with his father. Everything Ben did for them, he would not receive the acceptance, security, friendship, love, trust or accomplishment that he craved from a father figure. This simmering torment would lead Flocke to manipulate Ben into killing Jacob, thereby changing the balance of power on the island forever.

Ben only found peace when he gave up control, his ambitions, and his personal darkness, to become Hurley's assistant guardian. When he awoke in the sideways world, filled with his past memories, he decided to stay to "work things out" with his father, Rousseau and continue to protect Alex, even though they were apparently in the after life, and Rousseau and Alex's island memories of Ben would be harsh hatred for what he did to them. Even if Ben could try to "change" that past, in the sideways world he realized that he could not. Further, he could not control their future responses when they awoke, but Ben seemed to be okay with that - - - because he would try to influence the sideways present to repent for his past by being a kind, caring and trustworthy person. But we really don't know if that would have worked.

All of the couples in the sideways church has at least a strong bond on the island. Those who did not, like Locke and Boone, were left alone. It would seem that would be Ben's fate as well because he passed on moving on with Hurley's group. So there may have remained a hint of Ben still trying to change his past by trying to bond with Rousseau and Alex in the sideways world.

If there was a lesson here it is that no matter what you do, you cannot change the past or control the future because it has too many variables.